Choosing the right bathroom sink

A basin is chosen in ten minutes and then used ten times a day for years, so it is worth more care than the showroom's mood lighting invites. The checklist below covers the shapes, the tap holes, the wastes and the two structural questions that decide whether a sink suits the room it is going into.

The five shapes, honestly compared

Pedestal: the classic. Basin on a column that hides the pipework; forgiving on uneven floors; traps and isolating valves hard to reach afterwards. Wall-hung: basin bolted straight to the wall, everything visible below it, which means the waste and supplies must be worth looking at, because they become the design. Semi-recessed: basin overhanging a counter or shelf front; saves elbow room in narrow bathrooms; needs a counter with a notched front. Countertop / vessel: sits on or above a worktop; dramatic, and the splash zone is larger than anyone expects, the tap must rise high enough to clear the rim and the counter takes the drilling. Cloakroom corner: the compact scallop for a tiny loo; correct for its job and cramped for any other.

Depth is the underrated measurement. A shallow bowl throws water at the mirror and the user's sleeves; a deep, narrow one can feel cramped for washing. Rather than chasing a headline figure, compare the internal depth against the tap you have chosen and check that the spout pours into the bowl rather than onto the point where water meets ceramic at speed.

Tap holes: the maths nobody checks

Basins come with no holes (for wall-mounted taps), one hole (for a monobloc mixer), two holes (for separate hot and cold taps), or three (for a traditional twin-handle set with a central spout). The tap must match the basin exactly in hole count and hole spacing; a tap whose centres do not match the basin's drill pattern will not fit. Choose the tap with the basin, in the same sitting and from the same order. A mismatched tap-and-basin pair is one of the most common reasons a refit stalls.

And the tap's reach matters as much as its look: the spout should land near the middle-back of the bowl. A long spout on a small vessel pours over the front rim; a stubby one on a deep basin guarantees sleeve contact for the next decade.

The waste, the overflow, and the bit everyone gets wrong

The waste is the plug hole assembly, and it comes slotted or unslotted. A basin with an overflow needs a slotted waste (the slot lines up with the overflow channel); a vessel basin with no overflow needs an unslotted one. Fit the wrong kind and you get either a basin that cannot drain its overflow or a slot standing open above the seal, weeping into the cupboard below. Match the waste thread and the bottle trap beneath to the basin and the existing pipework, and check the size of the run already in the house before ordering, since older properties can hide a larger pipe behind a bath panel.

Click-clack (push-rod) wastes, which open and close from the top, are a popular choice; when they fail it is usually the mechanism that stops clicking, which can often be unscrewed and replaced from above without dismantling the trap.

The two structural questions

First, what is behind the wall? A wall-hung basin hangs on frame fixings into something structural. Brick is straightforward; stud walls need spreader plates or a ply backing fitted before the plasterboard goes on, and dot-and-dab on block needs the right fixings or the basin can work loose. Second, what is under the floor or in the cabinet? Every basin needs a trap and a waste run with fall, plus two supplies with isolating valves that can actually be reached. A basin that cannot be reached by the existing pipework without crossing a doorway is the wrong basin for that wall.

What this sheet does not cover

This sheet does not price basins, because prices move and the quality of the fitting is usually the more honest comparison. It also does not cover disabled-access heights and wheelchair clearances, which follow their own standard and deserve their own conversation, or solid-surface and cast-stone care, which differ from ceramic. If the refit includes a shower and tiling as well, the order of works matters more than any single choice in it; that is a different sheet and a longer conversation at the counter.